"We must be ready to dare all for our country. For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. We must acquire proficiency in defense and display stamina in purpose." - President Eisenhower, First Inaugural Address

Army Navy

Friday, July 02, 2010

Today, the Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls (jobs) decreased by 125,000 in June -- the first decline in six months. Today's chart puts the latest data into perspective by comparing job losses following the beginning of the current economic recession (solid red line) to that of the last recession (dashed gold line) and the average recession from 1950-1999 (dashed blue line). As today's chart illustrates, the current job market has suffered losses that are more than triple as much as what occurs at the lows of the average recession/job loss cycle. Also, today's decline in jobs provides further evidence that the current economic recovery has begun to cool.

My suggestion: Cut taxes and cut the big ticket social programs. Stop the idiotic ethanol subsidies and reopen the Gulf of Mexico for oil drilling. Jobs, jobs, jobs. If you get welfare or unemployment, you need to be out doing some community service as an "employee of the the people." Lots of work like the CCC used to do in our parks, inner cities and learning how to repair highways and bridges. Make a condition of welfare some sort of education program.

Give up the silly high speed rail system, kill the U.S. Department of Education, etc.

Bring some sense of economic stability to the country. If all we have to look forward to is a string of way out of whack budgets (assuming we ever get a budget out of the Democrats) and an unknown but virtually certain series of tax increases - the new promise will be "no tax increases on anyone earning below $25,000"), it's a little hard to decide to invest in anything except your own saving against hard times to come.

Pass a law forbidding unionization of state and federal employees, including teachers. Make teachers test for their jobs and close state-run schools that aren't getting the job done.

. . . Startups are a wonderful thing, but they cannot by themselves increase tech employment. Equally important is what comes after that mythical moment of creation in the garage, as technology goes from prototype to mass production. This is the phase where companies scale up. They work out design details, figure out how to make things affordably, build factories, and hire people by the thousands. Scaling is hard work but necessary to make innovation matter.

The scaling process is no longer happening in the U.S. And as long as that’s the case, plowing capital into young companies that build their factories elsewhere will continue to yield a bad return in terms of American jobs.

3 comments:

It's a possible negotiating point, though I would put it at 60 as is currently the case for the reserves.

I would toss in a "speed up" provision for time served in combat zones - 3 years for each 4 months in combat, 2 years for each 6 months of sea service deployments, and some similar formula for Coast Guard service.

Under my proposal, 12 months in combat zone starts your retirement at age 51, for example. I would extend allowable service to 40 years.

I would stop paying any retirement to congress.

For the states and local governments, no employee/teacher retirement until 62 (and that would be early at reduced schedule).

EagleSpeak

About EagleSpeak

The main focus of this blog is maritime security. Other matters may appear. I am a retired attorney and a retired Navy Reserve Captain (Surface Warfare). Opinions expressed herein are my own. Sometimes I have the experience to back them up. Your opinions may vary. Don't panic. Feel free to disagree, that's what free speech is all about.
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Under the header: BM2 Nicholas Ferris signals an AH-64 Apache helicopter from the U.S. Army 4-501st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion during deck landing qualifications aboard USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43). (U.S. Navy photo by MC3 Adam Austin/Released)